Paper giant illegally clearing Indonesian forests: environmentalists

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

JAKARTA (AFP) — Rare elephants, tigers and orangutans are under threat from illegal land clearing on Indonesia's Sumatra island by one of Asia's biggest pulp and paper companies, environmentalists said Tuesday.

Regional giant Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) and affiliates are clearing land and building an access road outside their legal concessions in the Bukit Tigapuluh area of Sumatra's Jambi province, a coalition of five environmental groups said in a press release accompanying a new joint report.

"From our surveys and other NGO surveys we know this is a very critical habitat for tigers, elephants and recently introduced orangutans," Desmarita Murni, a campaigner with WWF, one of the groups, told AFP.

Bukit Tigapuluh is one of only two viable habitats for...